AbbVie’s three proposals rejected

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AbbVie
ABBV, -0.06%
said Friday that it had made three cash and share proposals to the board of Shire, with the latest valued at £46.26 ($78.87) for each Shire
SHP, -2.62%SHPG, -1.29%
share, based on AbbVie’s closing share price of $54.03 on May 29.

AbbVie, which was spun off from Abbott Laboratories in early 2013, said discussions were no longer ongoing and that there could be no certainty that any firm offer would be made.

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Under U.K. takeover rules, AbbVie has until July 18 to announce a firm intention to make an offer and said it reserves the right to introduce other forms of consideration and vary the cash and share mix of the bid.

Shire, which is domiciled in Dublin, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Shire’s shares closed at £37.38 on Thursday, valuing the company at roughly £22 billion.

AbbVie, which makes arthritis drug Humira, in April reported a 1.2% rise in first-quarter profit to $980 million on net sales up 5.4% to $4.56 billion. The company hopes to bring other drugs to market over the next few years, including a treatment for hepatitis C.

In May, Shire raised its earnings guidance for 2014, saying it expects growth in underlying earnings per share to be in the mid- to high-20% range. Shire’s first-quarter profit rose to $230.4 million from $64.8 million a year ago. Sales rose 16% to $1.35 billion in the latest quarter, boosted by sales of attention-deficit-disorder drug Vyvanse and the inclusion of blood-disease drug Cinryze, which came from Shire’s $4.2 billion takeover of Viropharma that closed in January.

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